Released July 25, 1966 Length 2:47 | Genre Pop, soul, R&B | |
B-side "Put Yourself in My Place" Format Vinyl record (7" 45 RPM) Recorded Hitsville U.S.A. (Studio A); June 11 and July 5, 1966 | ||
"You Can't Hurry Love" is a 1966 song originally recorded by The Supremes on the Motown label.
Contents
Written and produced by Motown production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, the song topped the United States Billboard pop singles chart, in the UK in the top 5, and in the Australian Singles Chart in the top 10, released and peaking late summer/early autumn in 1966. Sixteen years later, it would again become a number-one hit when Phil Collins re-recorded the song. It reached number-one on the UK Singles Chart for two weeks beginning in January 1983, and reached No. 10 on the US Singles Chart that same month.
Overview
The song, a memory of a mother's words of encouragement ("My mama said 'you can't hurry love/No you just have to wait' ") telling her daughter that with patience she will find that special someone one day, is an example of the strong influence of gospel music present in much of R&B and soul music. "You Can't Hurry Love" was inspired by and partially based upon "(You Can't Hurry God) He's Right on Time" ("You can't hurry God/you just have to wait/Trust and give him time/no matter how long it takes"), a 1950s gospel song written by Dorothy Love Coates of The Original Gospel Harmonettes.
The recorded version of "You Can't Hurry Love" showcases the developing sound of The Supremes, who were progressing from their earlier teen-pop into more mature themes and musical arrangements. This song and "You Keep Me Hangin' On" were finished together; when it came time to choose which single would be issued first, Motown's Quality Control department chose "You Can't Hurry Love."
Written and produced by Motown's main production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland, "You Can't Hurry Love" is one of the signature Supremes songs, and also one of Motown's signature releases. The single became The Supremes' seventh number-one hit, topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for two weeks, from September 4, 1966 to September 17, 1966, and reaching number one on the soul chart for two weeks. The group performed the song on the CBS variety program The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday, September 25, 1966.
"You Can't Hurry Love" was the second single from the Supremes' album The Supremes A' Go-Go. It reached the #1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart in the United States, and #3 in the United Kingdom. The Supremes' version of the song is honored by inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's permanent collection of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
The Supremes also released a version sung in Italian: "L'amore verrà" ("Love Will Come").
Phil Collins version
The most notable cover of the song was released in late 1982 as a single by Phil Collins from his second solo album, Hello, I Must Be Going! Collins's version reached number-one on the UK Singles Chart (becoming his first number-one solo hit in the UK Singles Chart, and peaking two positions higher than the original song did in that country), and reached number 10 in the United States. The single was certified gold in the UK.
Although Collins had previously done covers as album tracks (of Genesis's "Behind the Lines" and The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" on Face Value), "You Can't Hurry Love" was the first cover he released as a single. Collins explained:
The idea of doing 'Can't Hurry Love' was to see if Hugh Padgham and I could duplicate that Sixties sound. It's very difficult today because most recording facilities are so much more sophisticated than they were back then. It's therefore hard to make the drums sound as rough as they did on the original. That's what we were going after, a remake, not an interpretation, but a remake.
Collins's version was the first track on the very first Now That's What I Call Music compilation CD. In the first verse, he changes "And I need to find, find / Someone to call mine" to "And I need to find time / Someone to call mine." On the second repeat of the chorus, he replaces the line "How much more can I take?" with "How much more must I take?", and likewise exchanges the words, "...trust in the good Lord..." to "...trust in a good time...".
Credits
- "You Can't Hurry Love"
- Phil Collins – drums, vocals, tambourine
- Daryl Stuermer – guitars
- John Giblin – bass
- Peter Robinson – piano, glockenspiel, vibraphone
- Strings arranged by Martyn Ford
- "I Cannot Believe It's True"
- Phil Collins – vocals, drums, keyboards, percussion
- Daryl Stuermer – guitars
- John Giblin – bass
- Don Myrick – alto sax solo
- Don Myrick, Louis Satterfield, Michael Harris, Rhamlee Michael Davis – The Phenix Horns
- Don Myrick, Louis Satterfield, Rhamlee Michael Davis, Phil Collins, Peter Newton – Phenix Choir
Other versions
The song was covered by the Dixie Chicks on the soundtrack to the 1999 film Runaway Bride. Their version peaked at number 60 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt covered it in April 2011.
The song was covered by The Stray Cats in 1981. Originally released as the B-side to their single "Rock This Town" and later on their anthology Runaway Boys '81–'92.